Today, I came to a realization: I have an extremely hard time remembering — or even acknowledging — that Dakota Fanning is only four years younger than myself. I am under the same impression as Jamie in believing that Fanning has been sexualized in a sort of creepy, I’m-totally-not-yet-grown-up-but-look-how-grown-up-I-can-be way. Apparently, she’s gotten all sorts of adult in Very Good Girls, wherein the first Dakota Fanning nude scene will exist. She explained that it was borderline necessary to MTV because of her age:

“Yeah, well, I’ve never done that before and I’m very newly allowed to do that. I was newly 18, so yeah, it was, it’s kind of a sensitive thing, but it’s a part of life.”

I think one of the most contradictory things about Hollywood is the way in which it stifles any form of growth among female celebrities. Whereas men like Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling and Zac Efron went from been non-sexualized child and teen stars to adult sex symbols within about 60 seconds flat, females are told to continue acting like a hyper-sexualized teenager for as long as possible.

While I believe that these stars have the right to reveal their sexuality in nearly any way they see fit, just like the rest of us, I do get sad when there seems to be a noticeable attempt to be taken seriously as an adult by means of it. For example, the way that Miley Cyrus has continuously worn bras as outfits and gotten progressively more risque with her routines (and interviews) in what seems like a result of the pressure to get the world to stop seeing her as a child. When was the last time a famous guy did anything to do the same besides walk along the beach without a shirt? I could be reading into this, of course, but as a female who went through the whole, “Oooh, you’re 19? That’s so sexy!” thing when I got to college — I wasn’t actually sexy, it was just my age, apparently — I have noticed that there is this weird obsession with the in-between, and that women have a much more difficult time escaping it than men.

Now, while Courtney Stodden may be one of the most bizarre famous people, period, she seems to have at least escaped this whole creepy limbo of Sexy Teen vs. Actual Adult that most stars get caught in (remember how there were gross countdowns waiting for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to turn 18?). Then again, sex and being naked in front of other people — albeit not millions for most of us — technically is part of life, so is Fanning accurate on that observation?

The Very Good Girls scene featuring Fanning will not be a sex scene, just FYI, but it is a “love scene” featuring the loss of virginity (which I guess is, um, sort of different than a sex scene). Considering she has already done some intense stuff in past films, like the rape scene in Hounddog, I’m certain her performance will be wonderful since she’s always been a pretty fantastic actress. But I am also curious to see where her career goes from here, as well as how she’s expected to guide it.